Housing News Digest
Housing News Digest
The Tenants' Union Housing News Digest compiles our pick of items from all the latest tenancy and housing media, sent once per week, on Thursdays.
Below is the Digest archive from November 2020 onwards. From time to time you will find additional items in the archive that did not make it into the weekly Digest email. Earlier archives are here, where you can also find additional digests by other organisations.
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Archive
House prices are falling, so why isn’t the auction market worse?
Elizabeth Redman Domain (No paywall)Potential home buyers are able to get a loan more easily now than during the last property downturn, but the amount of money they can borrow has dropped as interest rates rise. The easier access to credit is helping to put a floor under auction clearance rates, alongside a shift in expectations from sellers who are becoming more likely to meet the market.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/house-prices-are-falling-so…
# Australia, Housing market.Why it’s harder to buy a home at auction than it looks this spring
Kate Burke Domain (No paywall)Competition at auctions has been on the decline as the property market weakens, but new figures show that appears to be changing. Bidder numbers at auctions are stabilising, and even rising in some markets, as buyers and sellers adjust to the cooler market and interest rate rises. The modest supply of homes for sale is leaving buyers with fewer options.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/why-it-s-harder-to-buy-a-ho…
# Australia, Housing market.Mortgage rates rising, but savers still getting short-changed by banks
John Collett The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Banks have passed on only a fraction of the rise in official interest rates to savers, at a time of mounting cost of living pressures, including higher mortgage repayments and rents, and low wage growth. While the Reserve Bank of Australia has increased the cash rate by 2.25 percentage points since May, bonus saver accounts are paying just 1.31 percentage points more in interest, or just over half of the cumulative increase in official rates. Meanwhile, home loan customers have had almost all the cash rate rises passed on.
https://www.smh.com.au/money/banking/mortgage-rates-rising-but-s…
# Australia, Families.Recession risks grow as home buyers endure rate rises
Shane Wright The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The Australian economy is facing a sharp slowdown that could drive up unemployment next year, with growing fears the Reserve Bank may lift interest rates too high too quickly on heavily indebted home buyers as it fights to bring inflation under control.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/recession-risks-grow-as-…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market.COVID lockdowns spur interest in house history — so how do you uncover your home's secrets?
Rosemary Bolger ABC (No paywall)Australians have spent more time than ever at home in the last two-and-a-half years, so it is little wonder some have become curious about what has gone on within their own four walls. Also, check out the article by Rosemary Bolger and Cassie McCullagh entitled: 'Tony Parker's mid-century furniture designs remain popular with collectors' on ABC at: [https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-22/tony-parker-furniture-mid-century-design-collectors/101457604].
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-21/house-history-post-covid-…
# History NSW, Coronavirus COVID-19, Home.King Charles’s endless meddling in architectural politics has accomplished nothing
Phineas Harper The Guardian (No paywall)As Prince of Wales, Charles campaigned for sustainable townscapes. But good intentions are no match for the UK’s profit-driven system
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/sep/21/king-charl…
# International, Housing market.History and church object to radical rental plan
Jimmy Thomson (No paywall)Check out the latest issue of 'Flat Chat' which includes a number of stories on build-to-rent.
https://us19.campaign-archive.com/?e=cf977d5bb4&u=6df9c7bf24bfee…
# NSW, Rent, Strata, Affordable housing.A House Is Not a Home: the self-portraits of Brooke DiDonato – in pictures
The Guardian (No paywall)Brooke DiDonato is a photographic artist based in Austin, Texas. Her latest body of work, A House is Not a Home, is a series of self-portraits that call into question the boundaries of reality and the psychological mindset. She draws on early work positioning her and other people’s bodies in familiar domestic settings – straddling the line between the mundane and the absurd
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2022/sep/18/a-h…
# International, Home.